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Memoirs of great lives - 2 (Mahapurushon Ke Avismarñiya Jivan Prasanga - II): Vangamaya Vol-51

Complete deciphering of the complexities of the human mind is indeed impossible. The passions for comforts, pleasures, respect, power and possession seem to dominate its tendencies in general. With the support of selfish intellect, the power of mind sometimes even gets engaged in what corresponds to inhuman, pernicious and heinous activities. Howbeit, a single stroke of emotional jerk, blow of inspiring thoughts, force of intrinsic character, spark of wisdom, intuition or afflatus may generate upright changes in the orientation of its enormous strength and creativity….., and, may educe it towards realization of spirituality and divinity!
Noting the crucial role of its normal tendencies of – “learning by examples” and “following and adopting what it often comes in contact with”, wise men always try to keep it in the noble company of inspiring interactions, thought-provoking literature, creativity of talents, ….etc, which helps its illumination and conditioning in the righteous direction of elevation…. The present volume is an effort to support such endeavors. This volume aims at psychological amelioration of people’s mind with the help of selected memoirs of the lives of great humans who, despite being born as ordinary mortal beings and facing the adversities of worldly circumstances, could register their names in the annals of modern history with perennial glory.
It is a common observation that people by and large aspire for selfish motives. The ‘liberal thinking’ of human mind gets trapped in the mesh of ego, attachment and limitless varieties of passions….. Majority cares for more and more comforts and rights; some care for the duties too; rare are those, who live with higher objectives of evolution of consciousness. Most people remain unaware of the origin and ultimate goal of life…; the voice of their souls lie unheard within the ‘inert’ peripheries of their unconscious mind.
Such is the influence of personal interests that even the highly educated, talented and well-off ones – including the ‘experts’ of moral sciences and religious philosophies – are often found behaving contrary to the basic ideals of humanity. Many of them either waste or misuse their potentials. Their minds remain dormant towards the welfare of society and escalation of human values and culture. Caring for national interests or service of the needy – are beyond imagination for them; such topics are ‘subject matters of laughter’ for them. What more, they even find logical reasons and ‘intellectual’ arguments as well as scriptural references in support of their misdeeds….
There is another category, viz., of the ‘common people’ or the masses, who presume that they are destined to adjust with the circumstances and live the life as it is… Their ‘weak’ mind finds easy excuses in – ‘adversities of time’, ‘non availability of resources or support’, ‘pressure of circumstances’, ….etc. Hopes of righteous development of personality, viable progress and escalation of thoughts are dim here too unless inspired by a greater force, which arouses their inner strength or enlightens their mind with realisation of the limitless potentials and dignity of human life.
While most people are scared of calamities, struggles and hardships and often lose courage and mental balance in the tragic moments, what is so special about the great personalities, whose virtues, courage, determination, prudence and compassion get more and more refined and stronger after passing through the more and more difficult phases of life? What is that which leads them to accomplish, what could never be dreamt by even the more skilled and resourceful persons?
The fact that most of the glorious lives have aroused from different backgrounds under different circumstances proves that the latter do not bear much influence on generation or transmutation of great personalities…. Genetic lineage also does not seem to have any role to play in such effects because, otherwise, the annals of the history of human civilization would have been by now flooded by the large number of ‘successive generations’ or ‘families’ of greatness or heroic endeavors…. Then what it is? Is it the influence of intrinsic characteristics of the soul inherited from its previous lives? Is there any thing common in the attitudes, aspirations, thinking or spiritual levels of the great humans of different ages? The illustrative narration of selected episodes of the glorious lives presented here would throw light on some such points with special emphasis on the presence, transmutation and multifaceted manifestation of virtuous tendencies in such lives …..
The author has presented a marvellous embroidery of multiple colors of greatness – associated with the valor, courage, talents, sagacity, acumen, altruist sentiments and spirituality – of the architects of peace and prosperity in the human society at different times, in a collection of six volumes of the vangmaya series. The present volume in particular, focuses at the noble lives of the martyrs and great leaders, for whom, the selfless service of nation, human society and humane culture – was the sole objective of life. Patriotism was the highest kind of “worship of thee and devotion to divinity” for these immortal heroes.
The spirituality of Swami Vivekananda, Maharshi Arvind, Mahatma Gandhi, Subhash Chandra Bose, etc was always linked with immense patriotism. Although working from different platforms and with a difference of approach, they all had devoted their spiritual powers for a common cause of arousal of the lost prestige of India and its divine cultural values. In fact, the patriotism of these great souls was the basic source of inspiration, which transformed the lives of many others in the righteous direction.
The author, Pt. Shriram Sharma Acharya, too had surrendered every moment of his life, every impulse of his sagacity and supernormal powers in the patriotic ‘Yagya’ (supreme endeavor of sacrifice) and the ‘worship’ (altruist service) of the ‘deity’ of human society. This is the reason why he could describe the sentiments and thoughts of the other great personalities so vividly.
The remarkable sacrifices, patriotic endeavors and immortal contributions of the leaders and national heroes like – King Shivaji, Maharana Pratap, Bhama Shah, Saradar Patel, Lala Lajapat Rai, President Kennedy, President Roosevelt, Major Shaitan Singh, Bankimchandra, Vidyasagar, Chandra Shekhar Azad, Bahadur Shah ‘Zafar’….., etc are described here. The common factor of extraordinary courage, determination and perseverance in these noted personalities are highlighted here along with those of the symbols of valor – like, Napoleon and Alexander the Great.
The unique combination of sainthood, spirituality and patriotism reflected in the inner strength and the revolutionary endeavors of Mahatma Gandhi is recalled here along with the memories of similar distinctions in the lives of – Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Abraham Lincoln, Hemarschold, Marshall Zukob, George Washington, Winston Churchill, George Popindou, etc.
This volume also presents inspiring episodes of the serene lives of those who were endowed with exceptional talents, intellectual creativity, industriousness and adventurous zeal, and who had directed their gifted faculties towards some constructive endeavors and duties for the welfare of the fellow beings, society and nation… The descriptions include but, are not limited to the distinguished memoirs of – Maharana Raja Singh, Peshava Nana Saheb, Tatya Tope, Tipu Sultan, Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia, Hiralal Shastri, Surya Kant Tripathi ‘Nirala’, Varindra Ghosh, Balaji Viswanath, etc from India, and Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan, Sheikh Muziburrahman, Henry Ford, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, Izenhover, etc from the other parts of the globe.
The volume eloquently illustrates how the internal urge of patriotism coupled with coherence of firm determination, wisdom, bravery and foresight help transmutation of ordinary mortal beings – like most of us, into great humans whose lives and works become shining chapters of the world history. The memoirs described here should motivate us to introspect our present life and attempt arousing the altruist sentiments, piety and power of our inner selves too.